"I still don't understand..."
"That metal chassis that Gabriel kicked last night? You remember that?"
"Ya."
"That was a new device that we've been working on. The Crusher has been an instrument of chaos, the only control that we've ever had has been through tasers and brute force. In that way, he has been a failure of an experiment. But that device has helped us to control him."
"Dear fuck," he murmured. "You aren't saying?"
"Absolutely," Branch said. "I have full control over the Crusher now. He is no longer an instrument of chaos, he is the hand that I can use to crush those that oppose me and to strike fear into the hearts of those who believe me to be wrong."
Branch's sadistic smile caught Will off guard, him taking the glass of brandy from his brother and gulping it all down while it burned his throat. There was a certain sense of pride in what Will had accomplished out there in the arena. He had won all of his fights fair and square; he had made a name for himself by being the toughest man in the wasteland. Never before had he imagined having a fight thrown, but then again, what could the harm in it be?
"Well fuck," Will said. "Let's do this shit. Show that poofter Gabriel who's really in charge here."
"Good," Branch said. "Good. Good."
"When do I get to fight him, by the way?"
"That I'm not sure of," he said. "We had some... complications with Mr. Gabriel late last night and he's currently in a holding cell."
"No shit? What'd that bugger try to do?"
"Leave with some of my property."
"What an arse. So what does that mean?"
"For now, nothing. We let him cool off a bit, but his life now hangs in the balance of the arena and the arena alone. That's the only way he's seeing the outside of that cell."
"I'd be happy to put a poundin' on him out there, in fact, I'd fancy it."
"I know that you would, my dear friend, but that will have to wait for now. First, you destroy the Crusher, agreed?"
"Aye."
"Oh, and... That Vera of yours? She's quite the gal."
"What the fuck did he mean by that?" Will stood, arms crossed in Vera's office while she sat at her desk, welding goggles perched on her head. "Quite the gal?"
"I told you not to trust him, Will."
"This isn't about trust, I just, what the fuck did he mean?"
"I was talking to you about this before, Branch and his two cronies cornered me last night before they ran off. Just like he had gotten to Jenna, he was trying to get to me. You've gotta smarten up. Whatever plans he has for you, they aren't what they seem to be."
"Bollocks," he said.
"That's what you think, but c'mon, Will. Think for once. He wants to get into your head, he wants control over you. That is what this is all about; control."
"Oh, bugger off—"
"No, Will. He wants to control you. Do you know why he hates TK Gabriel?"
"Because he's a cunt?"
"No, dumbass, it's because TK Gabriel can't be controlled by him. He brought him into this little idyllic society as another of his puppets. TK Gabriel, Movie Star was a win for him. That was a show of his power, and Gabriel slighted him in front of everyone. Twice. Control, Will."
"Did you hear that poofter Gabriel tried to steal something from Branch last night and run off with it? What an idiot. He's down in a cell by Crusher now in the dungeon, I suppose."
"Guess he'll be needing this sooner rather than later, then," she picked up a metal contraption from her desk and inspected it.
"What in bloody hell is that?"
"Oh, he asked me to make him this shin guard the other night to use in the arena."
"So now you are making doodads for every bloke that stops by? What's next? Giving him a wank?"
"Oh fuck off, Will," she said.
"I don't know what the bloody fuck you do down here at all hours. Who else you been fuckin' down here? Do I even not want to know?"
"I'm not fucking anybody, you doofus. You don't control me, anyway, I can do whatever and whoever the hell I want."
"Oh, well, I guess that I can tell Branch that you don't need to live with me no more, see what happens to you then. You'll be zombie bait in no time, I figure."
"That's what you want, then? You want me to be turned into some toy for Branch to play with until he's bored with me and tosses me to his dogs? Get the fuck out of here, Will. I try with you, I truly do try, but you drink yourself into a blind stupor night-in and night-out, you pull the blinders over your eyes for another blowjob from Jenna and you can't see what is really going on."
"I can see what this is. Oh I see this, ya cunt."
"I've done nothing but help you, yet somehow you can't see that. You can't see what Branch is doing, it's right in front of your face. Damnit, Will."
"Damnit, woman. I don't want to fight right now, I have a splittin' cocksuckin' headache right now."
"You need to trust me, then. It's as simple as that. Both of our lives are on the line here, maybe even Jenna's."
"I guess so..."
"What does Branch want you to do? This is very important."
"To beat Crusher in the arena."
"Poor Demoreo," she said. "Is that even possible at this point?"
"Don't poor anything, he's a big fucker, innit he? I can beat 'em, Branch even said there is some mind control doodad in his skull that'll let me win."
"They're controlling his mind now?"
"Yessim," he said.
"How is that even possible?"
"How the fuck do I know? He just told me I can beat 'em, that's all."
"My god, he really is a madman. Then what?"
"What?"
"Can you retire then, have you earned your spot here permanently yet?"
"Not exactly, no..."
"What do you mean not exactly?"
"I dunno, I think he wants me to take out that Gabriel cunt as well."
"And you are going to do it?"
"I don’t have much choice, do I?"
"That's the problem, though, isn't it? Or are you not seeing that? You don't have a choice in any of this."
"It was our bloody choice to come here."
"And everything since then has been at the whim of Jordan Branch."
"So what, it's his tower, innit?"
"Then can we leave, go find somewhere else to stay?"
"Why would we want to?" He was losing his patience. His head was throbbing and she wouldn't just come out with her point already. He knew that Branch wasn't on the up-and-up with him always, but remembering back to the vast nothingness, the raiders, the undead, well, that wasn't the kind of place he set out into hoping to find a new home. Branch Tower felt like the only thing going, even if it was fucked up.
"I don't know, because Jordan Branch won't be there experimenting on people, feeding others to monsters and making people kill each other for his own sick enjoyment?"
"This ain't an ideal world, this ain't an ideal anything and—"
"Stop making excuses, Will."
"Fuck it, Imma lay down."
Fourteen
The Engineer
Will had stomped off, a blubbering, angry mess of a man, leaving Vera to her thoughts alone in her workshop. Will wasn't a bad guy, but she felt like she kept having to make excuses for being around him. If everything wasn't all fucked up out in the world, the chances of her even being around someone like Will was close to zero. He was so very, very far from the type of person that she'd associate with. It wouldn't even be a consideration. Things had changed, though. There was no room to be picky. He was a good guy, deep down beneath all the posturing, hair and booze, even if he didn't want to admit it.
Vera's thoughts drifted off to Demoreo and TK down in those cells. Demoreo was less and less himself over the past few months, to the point where she couldn't bring herself to visit him anymore. She had stumbled across his holding cell one night, maybe three months back, when she was looking around the basement for som
e copper wire. Stuart had told her that there should be some down in the labs, but in retrospect he was probably hoping that she'd get scared by Demoreo, the beast that they had called the Crusher as some sort of sick joke. Stuart was like that. None of them saw him as a human being anymore, just a monster for whatever they had in store for him, but she had seen the humanity left in him, even if it was diminishing each day.
Was he a monster? At least in appearance, yes. His survival also hinged on eating the flesh of the living, something to do with all the chemicals that were pumped into him, changing the fundamental chemical makeup of his body as well as its needs for survival. She wished that she had understood bioengineering a bit better, having only a cursory understanding of the basics of it from the one class that she took in college, but it wasn't enough to help him. At the time she thought it was exciting, but that there wouldn't be much of a future in it, so it was just another detour into another of the branches of science on her road to shooting things off into space.
Thinking about Demoreo, it was difficult not to sigh. In a way, he embodied all that was wrong with the world and how she had squandered her life working hard and studying all for nothing. All of those years studying hard, ignoring the outside world and being solely focused on being the best in her college felt like a waste now. Nobody was shooting rockets anywhere. Instead, her skills were merely ornamental, used for making makeshift weapons for men to kill each other for other men and women’s entertainment. It was still early enough in the day for Vera to make her way to the lab without anyone else being there. Well, Demoreo wasn't held exactly in the lab, more in a cell behind it that had its own access and everything. She snatched up the shin guard that she had made for TK just in case as well.
She used the back door to enter, wanting to avoid the labs just in case there was someone in there working late. While it wasn't exactly off-limits to her, she didn't want any trouble for showing up in Branch's lab, or to really have to with anyone else. Will kind of drained her in that way. The heavy iron door creaked open, unveiling the dimly lit room with a cell on either wall to her left and right. Demoreo was on the right, like he usually was, only he was sitting there staring off into space without making much of a sound. In the other cell was TK Gabriel, laying back on the cot with his jacket over his face.
"Demoreo," she said, holding onto the bars of his cell. "Demoreo, it's me, Vera. Are you in there?"
Crusher just grunted and looked over at her.
"Demoreo, c'mon," she looked down at his head, the metal pieces jutting out from it. They had implanted something in there, alright, and they hadn't really done a great job of it, either. Whatever it was looked to be some sloppy work. Then again, this was the apocalypse. The scientific method wasn't exactly at the forefront of everyone's minds.
"Who's Demoreo," Gabriel's voice made her jump a little.
"What? Oh god," she said. "You scared the shit out of me."
"Sorry."
"This is Demoreo."
"Funny. I thought he was the Crusher."
"Well yeah, but before that. He was just as human as you or I am. Fuck, I mean, he has a wife, had two kids. He's just another victim of this shitty world."
"His fist really fucked with my plans last night, I'll tell you that much."
"Oh? I heard you tried to run off with some of Branch's property, whatever that means."
"That's one way of looking at it. When I showed up here, I had an arsenal of weapons and my bike. I found my bike and just took what I felt was mine. They weren't so keen on letting me go, was all."
"Now you are a prisoner, so I guess that didn't work out so well."
"I was already a prisoner, just like you are. Branch is probably the only one who isn't, although I'd argue that having all of this makes him a prisoner of sort as well. I just felt like it was time for me to get out of here."
"And go where?"
"Anywhere but here."
"But there is nothing out there. Nothing at all."
"This is what, the ruins of old Las Vegas? I was heading east."
"But to where?"
"Anywhere."
"You don't know that there is anyone left out there, though, or if they are if they would be friendly or not..." She shuddered remembering the van that picked her and the other girls up, the same van that Will and his brother had helped to save her from. "There are some fucked up people out there."
"I'm hoping to avoid them, really. If this is any sign of what's left out there, I'm not looking to be a part of it."
"So you'd just be alone out there?"
"Suppose so."
"How would you survive?"
"I've done fine this far, haven't I?"
"Sure, for a guy inside of a cage."
"This is only temporary, I'll either find a way out or I'll die trying. Same thing, really."
"You sure are a ray of sunshine, aren't you? Just ready to give up like that?"
"There aren't many more options."
"So you are just going to run away from here, then? Just like that?" He had lost his mind, if he hadn't already a long time ago. She couldn't really tell, having only had a few short conversations with him. He fell silent, laying back down, not seeming to mind her piercing questions. Vera fumbled around with the shin guard in her hands. "Oh yeah, I brought this for you."
"What? Oh, so that's it, then? Thanks."
"Yeah, no problem," she handed it through the bars. "Better be careful with it, though. They might take it away if they know what it is."
"Good call," he said, strapping it to his left boot. Vera was proud of the power supply on that one, it being thin enough to tuck into his boot. He seemed to figure out where it went pretty quickly, and it really looked quite natural on him.
"Just make sure that it's off when you aren't planning on kicking someone's head off, that thing packs quite a charge."
"Can do."
Branch truly was planning on making Will's win over Demoreo into a huge event, putting up banners on each floor by the elevators promoting the fight. Will was actually spending more and more time out in the parking structure training with Handsome Bill to prepare for the fight, something that Vera had really never seen him do. Hell, he was even laying off of the booze a bit. This was being billed as the most important event in the arena's history, and the whole thing was just a giant sham to keep everyone spellbound.
Vera couldn't help but reflect on the profound sadness that she felt at seeing Demoreo as a sad husk of a human being. He was genetically modified beyond repair, with Branch's scientists having done everything that they could to erase any of his humanity. They wanted him to be a husk, a moldable plaything, to strike fear into the hearts of everyone who dared to oppose Branch. Demoreo was yet another tool, another instrument for Branch's new world order. Seeing him like that was difficult. Sure, he had physically transformed a long time ago, lost his ability to speak, but his mind was still mostly sound. At the time handing him a notebook and a pen seemed futile, but he could capture his thoughts regularly. Vera kept the notebook, knowing that Branch and his goons would never let him hold on to something like that.
That notebook went against their programming. Dehumanizing someone makes it easier to do horrible things to them. History has shown that time and time again. Hitler dehumanized the Jews while torturing and murdering them because they weren't people anymore to him or his followers. While it felt extreme to compare Hitler and Branch considering their crimes, she was relatively certain that Hitler wouldn't be able to protest being compared to Jordan Branch from the grave.
The notebook was in the top drawer of her desk; her pulling it out and flipping through it absently. She hadn't known Demoreo before he transitioned, but his story was similar to most of what she had heard. He had a family to worry about, one of his kids died and they turned up at Branch Tower with Demoreo on death's door. Branch took his family in, whisking them away to somewhere within the tower while Demoreo’s fate was out of his hands, immediately whiske
d to surgery. Demoreo had no clue what had happened to his family and was pretty sure they had no clue what had happened to him.
She had stopped bringing him the notebook after a while, him no longer able to write anything coherent in it. Instead, he looked pained, like he was being constantly tortured. It felt like she was breaking his heart with every time she came to visit him, the notebook in hand, him unable to do anything beyond mash the pen against the paper. Abandoning him was tough to her, but he was one of the last bonds that she held to another person and it simply hurt too much to keep going back there. She thought about bringing the notebook back to him one last time, to see if he could understand any of it, but it just seemed like a cruel and unusual punishment at this point.
The right move was in front of her the whole time, but it was one that she had dreaded even considering. The right move involved her finding Demoreo's family and sharing the notebook with them, to make sure that they found out what happened to him and how much he loved them. This was the only way that she could think of to keep Demoreo alive and let the Crusher just be one of Branch's sick experiments, not the walking memorial to a forgotten man. At this point it was too late for Demoreo, but there could be memories of him that persist beyond that hulk of a creature that Branch will use for whatever he has up his sleeve.
How to find Demoreo's family was another story. All that Vera knew was that his wife’s name was Shar and his son was named Tyler. There was Marie as well, but she passed away long before they made it to the tower. Branch kept most of what happened in Branch Tower quite segregated. There were many floors in the building and each one had its own purpose and population, each one a bit different from the rest. Vera lived in one of the more posh floors of the building with Will and Jenna, which only gave a small view of what life was like at Branch Tower. Only those in Branch's inner circle really knew what was going on throughout, and one of those been Will's creepy little brother, Stuart.
Tracking him down wasn't difficult, either. He spent most of his time down in the basement, checking on the various projects that Branch had going on and helping to organize combatants for the arena. Tonight was the big night of Will vs. the Crusher, which meant that he'd be around in the basement where she was. She strolled around for a bit, inquiring after him before she heard him cursing someone out. It was most likely over something minor, like everything in Branch Tower. The world had ended. Putting live action executions in an arena for bloodthirsty patrons hardly felt like a valid way to spend one's time, right?
The Tower Page 14